GardenArtist Posted September 2015
Gardening as therapy.
Follow
Share
Read More Close
3K Comments
Popular Questions
- I really want my grandmother to branch out--and to cut back the TV! Has anybody solved this problem?
- In the spirit of coping and adapting, let's share methods we've developed or read about to cope with sheltering in place.
- I feel soooo worn out and alone. What can I do to improve my non-existent life?
Related Questions
- Where to find a daycare program for someone that has Alzheimer's?
- Are there services/agencies for the elderly to have "outings' such as art classes or Sunday drives?
- Where can I buy large puzzles for my Dad that is blind in one eye and can barely see in the other?
- Do you have suggestions for interesting "books on tape" or CD's for a stroke survivor, former engineer and computer programmer?
Start a Discussion
i take steves advice , then i go home and do the exact opposite .
theres the right way , the wrong way , and my way . my way is the same as the wrong way only quicker ..
I have to garden wearing a mask for at least 2 and sometimes 3 weeks every time they drop their messy seed pods. Even then, the masks can't keep out all the cottony fluff. If it's inhaled, it causes a lot of coughing, and who knows what on a long term basis.
Sharyn, this one is probably at least fifty years old. The acorns are tiny maybe the size of a quarter around, if that big. I always thought acorns were move like the size of a cutie type orange? Know nothing about them at all.
OAK FLOWERS
Flowers of the Black Oak, Quercus velutina Oak trees have male flowers on one part of their branch, and female flowers on another part of the same branch. When a plant bears both male and female flowers it's said to monoecious.
At the right you see a flowering branch of a Black Oak, Quercus velutina, from a tree in southern Mississippi. It was scanned in mid March just as the tree's leaves and flowers were appearing. The leaves in the picture are only about one-fifth their summer size.
If you don't know what a calyx or a stamen is, you can review these items on our Standard Blossom Page. The yellow, wormlike items in the picture's lower, left corner are catkins, more technically known as aments. Catkins are clusters, or inflorescences, of male flowers. Each of the "bumps" on the catkins is a male flower consisting of a bract (a highly modified leaf), a lobed calyx and some pollen-producing stamens. Once the stamens have released their pollen into the air, the entire catkin will fall from the tree. Maybe you've seen thousands of such spent catkins littering a sidewalk beneath an oak tree early in the spring. Other trees producing catkins include willows
On a flowering oak twig you have to look close to see the female flowers -- the future acorns. The inset in the picture's lower right corner shows a much-magnified female flower. Actually, mainly you just see the reddish 3-lobed stigma. Below the stigma there's an egg-shaped ovary camouflaged so well that it blends with the fuzzy petiole beneath it, and the fuzzy stem just to its left. Since these female flowers appear where you might expect a bud to be most people overlook them, thinking they are seeing buds. However, a bud would never be topped with a 3-lobed stigma!
There are dozens of species of oaks and they can all be divided into two great groups, depending on how long it takes for its female flowers to develop into acorns. Acorns in the White Oak Group mature the year they appear, and the acorn's kernel is often sweetish and edible. The Chestnut Oaks belong to this group.
Acorns in the Red and Black Oak Group mature in their second year and often their kernel is so bitter that a human would have a hard time eating it.
This should be what landscapers are planting instead of high energy required massive lawns that need mowing. Or else supply goats and sheep to keep their energy intensive lawns more compatible with conservation.
What I've wanted to do for years was substitute ground covers for lawn, but the major effort of digging up the lawn and replacing it with ground covers is more than I can manage physically at this time. Even starting little by little is hard work; lawn is not easy to dig up.
I've thought of substituting rapid growing ground covers such as vinca or even Virginia creeper.
Thanks for the tip on the no mow grass - if it sounds too good to be true - double check! Thank you! I found it as Roberta's on QVC with 3-4" which still would need mowing but I am wondering if it would conserve mowing. Very interesting concept. I probably won't be an early adapter on this one.
The web says it will only grow 3" to 6", sounds great but the neighbours like to sheer their grass off at 2", they would not approve of a 6" lawn!
Glad, all trees flower of course, but the flowers are often very inconspicuous. I've never had enough oaks around to notice their pollen, but where I used to live there were a lot of cottonwoods that blanketed the area in yellow dust in the spring and drifts of "cotton" in June. My nephew has tree pollen allergies, Spring is not a happy time for him!
Tiger, my cat, just en.joys my company and he wants to play. With anything that moves, gardening tape for tying plants to stakes.
Your yard must be beautiful with all those rhododendrons - they are lovely shrubs!
Sharon, perhaps you could train cats to be garden helpers?
My lilacs ate blooming, I hope the rain we are having does not knock the petals off.
Sharyn, I think a cat that helps with planting would be great asset to gardeners! Did you train him or is he a natural gardener?
Raining lots so haven't been able to weed or prune, not complaining though.
Maybe my garden will grow if they plant them! lol.
As to buying more bulbs, well, you know that gardeners can never have too many bulbs. Marilyn Monroe might have felt that way about diamonds, but I'd rather have bulbs any day.
I saw photos of some lovely grape hyacinths today that will be added to my ever-growing "to purchase" list.
That's a good idea to leave some fall/winter jobs to help get the gardening activities going in the spring; it's easier to start with some cleanup than start with the whole tilling, digging and planting, even though it's exciting.
I'm guessing a lot of the contributors to this thread were out in their yards today as well.
I know that itch to get out in the yard in the Spring, so I usually leave a few jobs undone before winter such as cutting back my perennials. Today I spent some time outdoors doing a little pruning before this mild weather forces bud break and I am too late. I have a flowering crab apple and a dwarf blue spruce that are really getting too big for my property, but I like both so I will try to rein them in rather than cut them down.